[Ninong]

"He was wearing the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars and just about every medal in the book," said Major William G. Dragan, who attended the event and told ABC News that he immediately became suspicious of Weilbacher.

"He boasted of getting his Navy Cross by leading a secret mission against drug cartels in Colombia, which seemed very strange to me," Dragan said.

Weilbacher's girth also raised suspicion, Dragan said. "He is massively overweight, something like 400 pounds, and yet he claimed he had just left the Marines, which did not add up because he could never meet USMC physical standards," Dragan said.

Read the whole thing here.

[schrocat]

[Ninong]

Weilbacher said he was just playing pretend. After all, it's a popular Republican pastime:

[Ninong]

It's not the first time someone has posed as a highly decorated Marine and gotten away with it. It's just the first time anyone who weighed 400 lbs even attempted it.

Here's an earlier story of a guy who posed as a highly decorated Marine with combat experience and beaucoup medals. He claimed two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, among other combat citations. He spent 10 years in the Marine Corps but never did see combat. Shortly after 9/11, the Navy awarded him a $66 million contract to train Marines and sailors for special security duty at West Coast and Hawaiian installations without bothering to check out his service record:
Video Fake Medals, Phony Hero

The guys he was training figured out that he had faked his awards and turned him in. The Navy cancelled his contract. They had no explanation for why they didn't bother to check their own personnel records.